The Rogue Pirate's Bride by Shana Galen

Skeptic Scale: ♥♥♥♥♥

Ahoy me mateys! International Talk Like Pirate Day is on September 19th. That should give you enough time to brush up on the language of swashbucklers and sinners!

I cracked open this book and almost immediately it was like someone off a film set for Pirates of the Caribbean yelled "Lights! Camera! Action!" and Boom! Kapow! The flurry or activity never stopped until I turned the last page. I don't think the story was necessarily anything totally new. It was more of a superbly executed summer blockbuster than something profound and intense starring Cate Blanchett. And you know what? No disrespect to Ms. Blanchett, but huzzah! 

She: Raeven Russell, daughter of a British admiral, is out to avenge her fiance's death. The person she is after is the notorious scourge of the seas - Captain Cutlass. Raeven is up for the challenge. She be a saucy wench, swashbuckling and strong and pretty handy with a sword.

He: The erstwhile Marquis de Valère, aka Bastien Harcourt, aka Captain Cutlass, has a colorful past. He was run out of France during the revolution when he was only a child and has spent his life on the wide open sea pillaging and privateering. Cutlass is a pirate, true, but he's is a cultivated brigand, and roguishly charming to boot.

Conflict: Well, there's the whole thing about her trying to kill him to avenge the death of her fiance. But that's not the real conflict. The real conflict is the utter inappropriateness of the attraction they feel for one another - he did (unwittingly) cause her fiance's death, and he is a pirate and someone her father, a naval officer of the Crown, is compelled to apprehend - they obviously cannot be together. But when they are, it's all so perfect, you can't see another choice for them.

A note about piratical bathing habits. They are poor. I know just like you never hear about characters going to the loo in a story, you shouldn't really need to hear about them taking baths - except when mentioned in a sexual context. But it was a real point of distraction for me. Just imagining the rankness of that ship's hold... I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of adventure.

Anyway, my concerns about maritime sanitation aside, SG gave us some good old fashioned fun with this story. I can't wait to read another pirate book. I will dig around and see what I turn up.